IISS Special (Combat) Rescue

[rancke]

In a Space Opera setting the posse of Scouts mounting their ship and heading out into the deep black on the trail of the asteroid rustlers works.

Most (all?) Traveller adventures I know of are not Space Opera, though. They don't have the larger-than-life quality of Space Opera. Rather, they have the down-to-earth quality of the fiction of Anderson, de Camp, Dickson, Heinlein, Norton, Piper, Vance.


Hans

 

[samuelvss]

that could work too. but don't think "pirates", think "outlaws". that broader view brings the issue into sharper focus.

here's another aspect. the perfidious zhodani will have quite a few intel operations going - insurgency support, economic subversion, contact rigging - along the fringes of the imperium. navy and marines and local law enforcement would be a poor counter to this, but the scouts would be right there in evaluating and opposing it.

Indeed. Although the IISS would not be the only member of the Imperial Intelligence Community, they will be a big one: imagine if NSA ran Ma Bell, but was also in charge of the NRO. INI will focus on the more military aspects of intel. They will typically not move the heavies around to do anti-piracy patrols, but will coordinate their exercises and movements they otherwise make with the sector, subsector and planetary navies to share information and intelligence. ("IN activity may cause some squirters to show up in these systems around thes dates.") The locals will really be the pirate hunters, and pirates include anyone illicitly using force outside the 10D limit. MoJ agents will be your CIA/FBI. There will be a branch of the INI that deals in CRBNE, or maybe the IM. There will be myriad local (sector/subsector) agencies as well.

All this will leave precious little of the pure IISS assets for paramilitary and other door-kicking for its own sake. IISS finds out about smuggling, they tell the locals; illicit nukes, INI; intrigues against local nobles, their own agencies; skipping, the locals. If there are foreign agents, they will likely focus themselves on these efforts. If they are going and snatching someone themselves, it's because they really want to get to him first, not just because he's an outlaw. Unless it really is prejudicial to Imperial interests, rather than Imperial member world interests, then IISS is not going to roll on it. There's more than enough of the former to let the locals roll on the latter. Just my read.

 

[Quint]

I think we are also forgetting that one of the biggest roles of the MoJ (or the IISS) may very also be as oft-to-rarely requested adjunct or aide to local, planetary law enforcement - similar to how the FBI (or the SAS for that matter) can be called in for crimes or situations beyond the capability of the local LEO. Not as the first responder, but as the support crew or force multiplier.

This is especially true for those low population worlds which may simply not have the resources to maintain a decent LEO - or for whom it is generally the friendly "Andy Griffith". Equally important is looking out for the corrupt "Boss Hogg" that is promulgating violations of sophant rights and Imperial law.

D.

 

[rancke]

This is especially true for those low population worlds which may simply not have the resources to maintain a decent LEO

Not even one decent law enforcement officer?


Hans

 

[flykiller]

("IN activity may cause some squirters to show up in these systems around thes dates.")

ah ... now this one understands ....

adjunct or aide to local, planetary law enforcement

... as does this one.

 

[flykiller]

I plugged in some numbers on my ship spreadsheet at home and came up with some stats for a scout ranger.

tech 15
1900 dtons, streamlined, fp
10 months endurance
j4m5
armor 2(+7)
1xbeam9(x2)
1xsand7
2xmissile3
lifeboat, gig, airraft
command: 7
gunnery: 5
engineering: 8
team: 15

 

[kilemall]

I plugged in some numbers on my ship spreadsheet at home and came up with some stats for a scout ranger.

tech 15
1900 dtons, streamlined, fp
10 months endurance
j4m5
armor 2(+7)
1xbeam9(x2)
1xsand7
2xmissile3
lifeboat, gig, airraft
command: 7
gunnery: 5
engineering: 8
team: 15

If we are talking deep space/frontier scout light cruiser, probably should pack in a frozen watch, for replacements, a secondary specialist team and a place to put long term casualties without months of hospitalization and life support resources.

 

[Quint]

Not even one decent law enforcement officer?


Hans

I was thinking Organization rather than Officer, but the idea still stands. It's the forensic lab, the coroner, the skills in major crime investigation rather than issuing tickets, etc. Even an LEO on the "small town model" is potentially going to be outclassed by a big enough crime (just as they can be these days).

Lots of tail behind the head of that one officer these days. Find a small outpost someplace and who knows how hats they are wearing.

D.

 

[flykiller]

If we are talking deep space/frontier scout light cruiser

we could. but I was thinking more rapid-response team, not "cruiser on naval campaign". based on efate or vilis or karin, a ship that would have the speed and firepower to deal with any standard merchant trader stuffed with miscreants, and a squad capable of dealing with most crews or gangs.

what I drew up has room for 20 lowberths and a small sick bay, I just didn't list them. if you want more payload then you can reduce to m4, which should still be more than adequate but would allow for a doubling of the action team while slightly decreasing ship crew. and j4 may be an indulgence given likely jump routes, j3 could be quite sufficient in many localities.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I think what you originally described fits perfectly with the description of S-3 or the Special Security Service.

I'd add to your list the FBI's HRT (Hostage Rescue Teams) and the CIA's "Operators".

I think that idea of the Scouts as an "Intelligence Agency" with its own in house "trained killers" and the idea that the Security Branch have, to quote Marc's and Loren's original JTAS #06 article "the widest powers of any Imperial law enforcement agency" have sparked off thoughts about what kind of shadowy tool of empire the IISS actually is.

Is it the Dark Side of the Imperium? There are all kinds of modern day parallels which I'm not going to go into outside The Pit with intelligence agencies and the transmission of data, but there's also the fact that the acronym for the service itself contains the letters "SS" :devil::CoW::devil:

Oh and don't the Scouts have a youth wing called Space Cadets? All that time spent fearing the SolSec guys and we never suspected the Scouts.

You're a thought criminal

 

[Blue Ghost]

About IISS intelligence, remember that in MT, the "True Strephon" is said to ressort to them when made his stance, as IN and other agencies hadalready choosen sides (Rebellion Sourcebook, page 41).

Ho baby, the plot thickens

 

[Blue Ghost]

Not even one decent law enforcement officer?


Hans

I refer you to "Support your Local Sheriff", staring James Garner. Note the scene where he comments on the bullet dent in the sheriff's badge. And note the mayor's response :smirk:

 

[Reban]

You're a thought criminal

There may be a little bit of renegade Zho in me :rofl:

IMTU I run a Grey Imperium, sometimes the PCs experience a benevolent star empire, where law is there for their protection, but sometimes they get stepped on "for the greater good".

Thats part of the reason why I've found this thread so interesting.What kind of intelligence agency is the IISS? Who do the Security Branch arrest and why? What happens when S-3 drops through the roof to rescue a scout or remove tech from an interdicted world.

 

[RandyB]

There may be a little bit of renegade Zho in me :rofl:

IMTU I run a Grey Imperium, sometimes the PCs experience a benevolent star empire, where law is there for their protection, but sometimes they get stepped on "for the greater good".

Thats part of the reason why I've found this thread so interesting.What kind of intelligence agency is the IISS? Who do the Security Branch arrest and why? What happens when S-3 drops through the roof to rescue a scout or remove tech from an interdicted world.

Now start your PCs as natives of that interdicted world...

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, my concept was that the scouts would have carte blanche to do just about anything in the name of preserving a planet's native environment; any native sentients / sophonts, native species, native climate and so forth. And when a pirate or other undesireable (maybe a Zho or Soli doing "behind the lines black ops") came to the fore, and if the army, navy and marines couldn't handle it (too distant, too busy, or some other factor or combination thereof), then the Scouts'd zoom in and take care of business.

I wrote a piece of Traveller fiction (which I've not published) where a drug lord had a treaty prohibiting army, marines and various other ground military from interceding on his world. The story ended with a few platoons of Naval Infantry led by a Scout Flight Captain to take care of business.

In tight situations, and given that the scouts go where others don't, it was my thinking that the IISS would have it's own special elite units. Heck, maybe they got some psi-talented people in their ranks who can do the Zho thing of teleporting in, shooting things up, rescuing whoever, and then teleporting out.

Man ... I sure could go for some Taco Bell right now.

 

[rancke]

Well, my concept was that the scouts would have carte blanche to do just about anything in the name of preserving a planet's native environment; any native sentients / sophonts, native species, native climate and so forth.

Anything not covered by a member world's Imperial charter. And legislation by the local duke.

IMO, that is. I'm a great supporter of the notion that the individual duchies should be very much configurable by a referee. In one duchy the duke enthusiastically supports the Scouts' efforts to protect the environment; in another duchy the duke is in cahoots with the major member worlds to circumvent inconvenient Scout regulations.


Hans

 

[Blue Ghost]

My hunch is that the Scouts were intended to be scouts, but that a section of them are probably a combination of special-ops / military (and probably law enforcement as per previous posts) to go into the local dukes private game reserve to look into the disease ravaging the local xeno-deer population, when in reality several members of the scout team are infiltrating some local drug lord or terrorist group, or even snatching the duke himself to be ferried to Core or Strepheron himself.

Imagine said team of scouts leaves, and either that terrorist cell is no more, that drug lord is arrested, or the duke is in cold sleep as he makes his highly illegal journey to the Moot to explain why he let ... oh, I don't know ... SolSec setup a not so clandestine office on his world, and how it is that his bank account has suddenly swelled from cross border Imp-Soli trading, and why his personal Huscarles and Dragoons are all armed with TL14 Soli weapons.

You know ... I'm going to write that one up.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Or, maybe the IISS security branch is more like Interpol?

Anyone?

 

[mike wightman]

Originally the Imperial government starts at the subsector level. IN bases are assigned to strategic worlds - or at least they should be - it is only the scouts that get to routinely visit every single world in a subsector.

Stands to reason that they are the ones that would therefore act like Imperial marshals...

(afterall there is nothing left for them to scout since the frontier sectors have had an Imperial presence for nearly 1000 years - tales of Vanajen only being re-contacted in the 900s being ridiculous...)

 

[rancke]

Originally the Imperial government starts at the subsector level. IN bases are assigned to strategic worlds - or at least they should be - it is only the scouts that get to routinely visit every single world in a subsector.

Stands to reason that they are the ones that would therefore act like Imperial marshals...

I would assign that role to Ministry of Justice agents.

(afterall there is nothing left for them to scout since the frontier sectors have had an Imperial presence for nearly 1000 years - tales of Vanajen only being re-contacted in the 900s being ridiculous...)

Only possible interpretation is that Vanejen was interdicted when first surveyed and that the re-contact date is the date when they were formally contacted (after the interdict was lifted).


Hans